Why do crowns for teeth cost so much?

They are just little pieces of porcelin.

Why do crowns for teeth cost so much?
I am glad to answer that for you. They are not just little pieces of porcelain first off. And no they have not proven the metal crowns to be unsafe like the first person said. Depending on the lab that the dentist uses is what the cost of the crown will be. Also what type of material he has the lab use. Non-precious metal crowns are known not to last near as long as high nobel metal (a gold mixture). So many dentists are choosing that type, simply because their name is going on that work and they don't want their name on something that is going to fail in about 7 years. Making a crown start to finish is not cheap.





When you pay for a crown you are paying for every singe item they use on you. Guaze, cotton rolls, anesthetic, needle, sterilization of the insturments, barriers for the room, water, electricity, the burs that are used to prepare the tooth, impression material, impression tray, hemostatic solution and cord, temporary crown material, cement, lab fees, assistant salary (I make $15.00 and hour, some assistants make as much as $22.00 and hour) the paper your insurance claim or bill was printed on, the front desks salary, blah blah blah. Need I go on, cause trust me there is a lot more on the list.





I say a lab bill the other day on a crown. We asked for a high nobel crown with a porcelain outer cover. With the cost of the weight of the gold, the porcelain, shipping, tax, etc., the bill for that one crown was $318.00. We charged the patient $825.00 for that. So take the lab fee out of that and you have $507.00 left over, which will have all the above things listed deducted before the dentist pockets a dime.





So now do you see why those "Little pieces of porcelain" cost so much.





Trust me, I know how expensive dental materials. I buy them everyday. They are outragous. Not like going to WalMart.
Reply:I agree completely, that is alot of money. But those dang dental supply companies charge a butt load for the supplies we buy. I have probably bought about $7,000 worth of supplies in the last 3 weeks. Guess who in the end pays for that? The patients. Report Abuse

Reply:Because dentist can charge what they want and they do. It costs a local lab $110 to make a crown, thats what they charge the dentist and he turns around and charges $900. At most I would say the dentist spends one and a half hours with the patient, thats doing the crown prep and then cementing the permanant crown weeks later. The dental assistant does most of the work and makes anywhere from $10-16 an hour.


Now, you would think that they would want to encourage people to visit the dentist, but anyway, its a dog eat dog world.


My advice to you and your husband is if you get check ups and cleanings regularly (every 6 months) you can avoid having painful and or very expensive work done because you will 99% of the time catch these problems when they are small.


Thats the truth and thats my advice to you.
Reply:So the dentist can afford his expensive car, house, take a world cruise you know...rob us blind!
Reply:Go to Mexico and get the work done for a tenth of the price (don't worry - they're trained in the U.S.)
Reply:What do you do for a living?





I had a service call to "clean my pipes" when our sewer line was sluggish. The gentleman was here for FIFTEEN MINUTES. I mean, from the time he rang the doorbell until the time he slammed his van door on his way out of the drive was FIFTEEN MINUTES. He took one cap off a pipe and did the plumber's equivalent of opening up a tooth for root canal with a 3 foot snake. That was all it took. He charged $169.00 for this, which was his minimum charge for a service call. Let's say that was all he could make in an hour, because he has to drive from one location to the next. This money is HIS money, as he answers his own phone and handles all of his own business. He has no salaries to pay. As far as I can see it, he had to pay for gas to get to my house and that was his only variable expense involved in the call. His fixed expenses are for his equipment. In my case, he used a snake that is exactly like one I saw at Home Depot for thirty bucks. Depreciate that over a 7 year period....... Nevermind. You understand what I'm saying.





Personally, after 8 years of higher education, I'd like to have a net income close to what the man who opened up my sewer pipe makes per hour.
Reply:it takes a long time to become a dentist. they charge alot because they can. if a mechanic had to go to 8 years of school, a tune up would probably cost a couple grand...
Reply:Not only are you paying for the crown itself, but also for the dental assistant's time working on you, the dentist themselves time, all the materials they use in getting the crown ready and many, many other things.
Reply:They are hand crafted. They take a while to do. I know someone who does this for a living.
Reply:The composite resin crowns are not covered by dental insurance, which is quite unfair, and very costly. However, the metal ones have been proven to be unsafe.
Reply:every area will charge you differently....they cost so much because of 1 the type you buy and or where you go. Full porcelain meaning no metal will cost more..and buy the way...yes the INS should help you with 50% of a crown the has metal. And metal is safe. A composite resin is a white filling not a crown...